Donald Trump calls on Congress to 'bring fairness to Big Tech' ahead of hearing
29 July 2020, 17:34
President Trump has told Congress they need to 'bring fairness to Big Tech' or he will 'do it with an Executive order' ahead of a Congressional hearing to question the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
On Wednesday, the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple will testify together in front of Congress for the first time ever.
The executives will appear via videolink, and will be the first time Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has ever appeared in front of Congress.
Ahead of the hearing, Donald Trump tweeted a stark warning to his Congressional colleagues.
The President wrote: "If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders.
"In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!"
If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders. In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2020
The hearing will allow politicians to grill Apple's Tim Cook, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai.
It will be looking at the impact of Big Tech on American society, and will focus whether they are using their economic power in damaging ways.
Questions of whether the companies have abused their dominance to push their own products, as well as ongoing worries about censorship and free speech on social media platforms are all also expected.
The CEOs will likely to argue that their platforms are still not as dominant as much of the public assume.
They are also likely to argue that they face threats from other markets such as China, which could become more powerful if they were subject to limiting regulation.